Sentiment seemed overwhelmingly positive this session when the benchmark index immediately shot up three points within the first 30 minutes of trading, and kept edging up gradually until it closed 6.91 above its opening of 894.04.

Analysts believe investor sentiment is being supported by Vietnam’s stabilizing Covid-19 situation, with no new intra-community infections reported in the last 15 days.

Although foreign investors have consistently been net sellers on all of Vietnam’s three bourses, brokerage VDSC, in a report this week, said that they have data showing that some international investment funds are raising capital and setting it aside specifically for the Vietnamese market, targeting large- and mid- caps, and this could give equity markets a boost in the near future.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the VN-Index is based, was a sea of green on Friday with 245 tickers rising and 148 tickers losing. Total trading volume rose marginally over the previous session, to VND6.66 trillion ($288.84 million), far above last month’s average trading of VND5 trillion per session.

The VN30-Index for a basket of the HoSE’s 30 largest capped stocks surged 1.13 percent, with 25 tickers gaining and only one losing.

Banking sector stocks were by far the best performers on the VN30 this session. MBB of mid-sized state-run Military Bank topped gains with 3.6 percent, followed by TCB of private Techcombank, up 2.3 percent.

Of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned lenders by assets, CTG of VietinBank rose 2 percent, BID of BIDV 1.2 percent and VCB of Vietcombank 0.5 percent.

Of private banks, VPB of VPBank added 1.8 percent, STB of Sacombank 1.7 percent, HDB of HDBank 0.5 percent, and EIB of Eximbank kept its opening price.

Other major gaining tickers included FPT of IT services giant FPT, up 2.4 percent, SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., up 1.9 percent, VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, 1.5 percent, and HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, 1.2 percent.

VIC of private conglomerate Vingroup, HoSE’s largest capped stock, remained flat this session, while VHM of its real estate arm Vinhomes climbed 0.3 percent and VRE of retail arm Vincom Retail rose 0.7 percent.

ROS of construction firm FLC Faros was the only ticker in the red this session, down 0.5 percent. It is also the smallest capped stock on the VN30, and usually fluctuates from floor to ceiling (around 7 percent) each session because of its relatively low market cap compared to the others.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid- and small-capped stocks, added 0.57 percent, and the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market rose 1.2 percent.

Foreign investors were net sellers again, to the tune of VND77 billion on all three bourses. The most net sold stocks were VHM of Vinhomes and POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam, which kept its opening price.